Resolutions
by TheNocturne
Summary: The new year was a good time to make some changes, right? One-shot, Kuki/Wally.


**Long time, no see, guys. This story is probably going to suck, I'm so out of practice.**

**Ffft.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters!**

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It wasn't the way that her feet were crossing and uncrossing every few minutes. Nor was it the way that her frame shifted, gracefully tilting the axis of balance back and forth while she hovered over her seat. It wasn't even the little furrow between her brows that casted a shadow over those vibrant violet lenses.

No. The amusing part was the way that her tongue was stuck so loftily between her teeth.

That was how Wally knew that she was really thinking. Whenever the recesses of her mind were churning at such a pace that she lost track of the world around her, it wasn't long before she was chewing lightly on the very end of her tongue. At this point, attempting to pull her away from that bubble of thought would be almost similar to awakening the kraken, although the Australian was not one to shy away from risks. Ever.

"Kuki?"

A soft noise was his only response, and it wasn't clear if she was dismissing him, encouraging him to speak, or telling him in her own quiet way to leave him alone before various kitchen utensils began flying across the room. She was kind of vague that way.

_I would have made such a good pirate_, Wally thought to himself as he prepared to speak again. Fearless, daring, incredibly attractive in the rogue kind of way. What more did a life on the high seas require?

"Kuki? What's got ya so worked up, ay?"

Her gaze flicked upward, and then down again. He wasn't even sure she had registered his presence until she finally looked up at him again, finally realizing that he was there. "Yes?" came the somewhat absentminded response, his question having flown at least a food over her head.

So he went and sat across from her, leaning a lazy hand on his palm. "What are ya working on? Ya look like I do when I'm tryin'a figure out math."

Her lips quirked a little at that. Oh, the days of their childhood, when the blonde had struggled so fiercely with school. The upheaval of the memories seemed to draw her further out of her intense concentration. "It's nothing, really."

"Ya wouldn't be frownin' like that if it were nothin'." There were three things Wally knew: One, Kuki always smiled. Two, when Kuki wasn't smiling, something was seriously wrong. Three. . . eh. He'd think of a third one later.

She glanced back down at the paper, and her answer came so shyly that Wally might have thought she was admitting to a serious crime. "I was writing my resolutions for the new year, that's all."

. . . Why had he actually expected something slightly. . . oh, I don't know, important? "Your resolutions?"

"Yes." Her gaze was so very, very serious. "I only have three so far."

This was going to be good. "Let's hear 'em, then."

The Asian girl immediately wrinkled her nose. "These are very personal, Wally, you can't just share your resolutions with everyone!"

"Says?"

". . . Everyone!"

His eyebrow quirked upward. "C'mon, Kuki, just read me the list."

There was no way that she was going to be able to argue with him, and she knew it. His debating skills were just too much, and he was as stubborn as a mule that had been kicked in the face to boot. "Fine." Her eyes dropped to gaze at her list, which might have been an excuse to avoid his gaze. "The first one is to work with Abby so I can get better at hand-to-hand combat. She promised to help."

"Admirable," the Australian remarked simply, watching her face. The amusement that he was feeling was kept carefully in the back of his mind so as not to deter her, because he knew the minute she saw him grin, she would huff something and refuse to read anything else.

"The second one was to see if I could find an animal from a shelter to adopt," she murmured, shoulders lifting and falling. "A puppy, maybe! It'd be so sweet if I could give a cute little animal a new home."

So very like her. "It'd better be a big dog. No little yappy thing, ya hear?"

She made a face at him, glanced at her paper again, and then paused for a few long seconds, and then glanced up with a little smile. "The third one was to eat more vegetables."

". . . What?" Out of every fluffy, unicorn-themed thing he had been expecting, vegetables had not been included.

"Yup." She smiled a bit wider and folded her list up, placing it in front of her.

After a few seconds, the Aussie's green eyes narrowed slightly. The little quirk of the corner of her mouth felt slightly off, like it was a smile she wasn't quite putting her usual amount of feeling into. He knew Kuki's smiles, much more than he would ever willingly admit to anyone, and this was not one of them.

Under the table, he opened up his phone and navigated, quite skillfully (as he later credited himself for), to her speed-dial number and pressed the key to call her.

His phone dutifully reacted and within seconds, her cell phone was chiming a peppy little theme that he couldn't name if he wanted to. The girl jumped a little, looked around in surprise, and blurted a quick excuse before leaving to get her phone, which was always in her purse beside the door.

The second she was gone, Wally's hand flew across the table and snatched up her paper, skipping over the first two lines and focusing on the third. Her curly handwriting was difficult to decipher, but he was finally able to make out the sentence there.

_"3. Get better at video games so I can spend more time with Wally."_

By the time the girl trotted back into the kitchen, the paper was back in its position and Wally had crafted an apologetic look, holding up his phone and delivering his conjured sentence about having pocket-dialed her. Then he congratulated her on her decision to eat more vegetables, and very wisely recommended also adding more meat to her diet since the wind could blow her away with no problem.

As she tucked her list away, safe from his eyes, she offered him a casual question, one he hadn't thought about yet. "Do you have any resolutions?"

The boy just grinned a little as he stood up and made to leave the kitchen, claiming a bagel for his own on the way out.

"Play more video games."


End file.
